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        <p>There's nothing tricky about Japanese vowels. The main thing
        is to pay careful attention to letter combinations that resemble words in
        English. For example, it might be tempting to read <i>you</i> as the English word "you." Really, it is a 2-syllable Japanese
        word <i>yo-o</i>.</p>

        <p>Aside from that, you'll be all right if you just remember
        the following two rules:</p>

        <ol>
            <li>Give each vowel its own, distict pronunciation.</li>
            <li>The only exception is that <i>e</i> is extended with <i>i</i>, and <i>o</i> with <i>u</i>.</li>
        </ol>

        <p>Before we move on to the consonants, let's consider the
        following question: Does Japanese accent certain syllables, like English?</p>

        <p><span class="subhead">Stressing out</span><br />
        In English, we place extra heavy stress on one syllable in
        each word. For example, computer needs to be pronounced &quot;com-<b>pu</b>-ter&quot; in order to sound right.
        For you linguist-types, this is called <i>stress
        modulation</i>, because there is informational significance to where the stress
        occurs.</p>

        <p>Does Japanese use stress modulation? Nope. Not at all. This
        is one of the hardest points for foreigners to conquer. We instinctively want
        to stress some part of each word, but it sounds odd in Japanese. In Japanese,
        each syllable gets the same stress as the next. As you progress through this
        textbook, you'll be able to hear this. It may be challenging at first, but try
        consciously to give each syllable the same stress.</p>

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